I don't know, maybe I'm old-fashioned. Maybe I'm just not hip with the times. But when tanks are deployed in Westwood at an anti-war protest, it kind of scares me. Make sure to watch the video too.
What exactly is going on in this country?
Thursday, November 11, 2004
Maybe they were lost
Posted by Bell Curve at 1:12 PM
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
8 comments:
I suspect that was not the LAPD's doing. Those are army tanks, not the LAPD SWAT tanks which are less heavily armed and are blue-black. Also, the LAPD cops on the scene are bicycle cops with bike helmets not riot cops or SWAT cops.
This makes me think that some assholes from a nearby national guard depot decided, on their own initiative, to go "show the flag." This is just as scary as if the LAPD had done it.
That is an ugly ugly scene and there is no way to sugar coat it.
I'm shocked that the LA Times is not covering that story. Neither is CNN.
What the hell were those tanks doing there? I'm convinced the LAPD didn't ask for them to come! Why would the LAPD go from 4 bicycle cops to tanks in one big jump!? Who sent them? Some damned Bushie overreacted to a few bongo playing protesters.
I think they were looking for Bagdhad and they made a wrong left hand turn in Albuquerque. I don't think they were deployed. that protest was fairly anemic looking.
The whole thing is a bit disgusting, really. 2 bike cops trying to get the 10 protesters off the street. The protesters are just as off-putting to me as the tanks in the middle of the street. What strikes me is the 7 lanes traffic zipping by like nothing is going on.
Hi US West. There's no reason you would know this but that Federal Building is very close to the busiest intersection in all of Los Angeles (Wilshire Blvd and Westwood Blvd). The seven lanes of trafic wizzing by was Wilshire Blvd at rush hour and people were far too jazzed about the fact that trafic was actually moving to think about politics. If anything they were probably annoyed that the tanks were blocking one of the lanes.
But this brings me to this point: There is no way those tanks were there by accident. This is not a part of LA where you would see armored vehicles driving around on their normal business or training. There are parts of LA/Southern CA with big military bases nearby but this is not one of them. This is Westwood which is where UCLA is located. Its sandwiched between Brentwood, Bel Aire and Beverly Hills. The closest military installations there are a large Veterans Affairs complex and a large military cemetary (mostly from the Spanish American War). These installations are very close to the Federal Building but neither has large numbers of active military personel stationed there.
Besides people have a constitutional right to be irritating without being intimidated/provoked by large tanks.
I AM VINDICATED!
Yeah, wrong turn. Bull shit.
From the video, it looks like the tanks ended up moving on and leaving the anti-war protest where it was, banners still flying, so it may well have been a mistake, or at least just a few soldiers out for a joyride to go buzz the rally.
I think it was a bunch of soldiers who wanted to go "buzz" the protest with their tanks. This still ticks me off for two reasons: 1) they aren't supposed to go joy riding around Westwood in tanks in the first place. 2) they aren't supposed to advocate partisan political positions while in uniform!
Point 2) is at the heart of the concept of civilian control of the military!
Post a Comment